• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1721-1732
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• 2007

This study identified types of information source, and explored a path model for consumer information search by shopping attributes in the context of online decision making. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires during regularly scheduled classes. A total of 219 usable questionnaires were obtained from respondents who enroll at universities in the southwestern region of the United States. For data analysis, factor analysis and path model estimation were used. Consumer information source was classified into three types for online clothing purchases: Online source, Offline retail source, and Mass media. Consumers were more likely to rely on offline retail source for online clothing purchases, than other sources. In consumer information search by shopping attributes, online sources were more likely to be related to transaction-related attributes(e.g., incentive service), whereas offline retail source(e.g., displays in stores, manufacturer's catalogs and pamphlets) were more likely to be related to product and market related attributes(e.g., aesthetics, price) when purchasing clothing online. Also, the path model emphasizes the effect of shopping attributes on traditional retailer search behavior, leading to online purchase intention for clothing. This study supports consumer information search by attributes, and discusses a managerial implication of multi-channel retailing for apparel.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.101-114
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• 2007

This research aimed to identify the differences, in terms of the pattern, of using wool and jersey for designing jackets and to provide a theorized solution. The object of this study is development of women's tailored jacket pattern by the traits of fabrics with fabrics those are generally used to develop the power of manufacturing technique about fit of jacket. Basic bodies prototype, graphics of sleeves prototype and graphics of jacket pattern those a clothing company at present(on&on, a brand of Beaucre Merchandising Co.,Ltd) is using were used as basics of tailored jacket pattern. Three kinds of fabric(wool, polyester, jersey) were chosen, we made jackets in the same manufacturing process of the clothing company, modified and made up for the weak points and then we compared and analyzed differences of pattern by the traits of fabrics, the results are as follows: 1) We drafted basic tailored style jacket pattern, made a jacket with wool fabric, made wearing experiment, modified and made up for the weak points by the trend, then developed JacketⅠ for study; 2) With JacketⅠ for study as the basic, we made a jacket with polyester fabric, made wearing experiment, modified and made up for the weak points, then developed Jacket II for study; 3) With JacketⅠ for study as the basic, we made a jacket with jersey fabric, made wearing experiment, modified and made up for the weak points, then developed Jacket III for study; 4) We presented final degree of polymerization of pattern with Jacket I II III for study; 5) We compared and analyzed the differences of pattern with the degree of polymerization of pattern with Jacket I(Wool) for study and Jacket II(Polyester), there was no change of size overall except extra amount which happens because of the trait of the fabric in 20 items of body format pattern, there were differences of size in 3 items(height of a sleeve, width of a sleeve, length of a sleeve) among 5 items of sleeves pattern; 6) We compared and analyzed the differences of pattern with the degree of polymerization of pattern with Jacket I(Wool) for study and Jacket III(Jersey) for study, there were differences of size by the kinds of fabric in 11 items(neck point to shoulder point length, Bishoulder point length, back interscye length, front interscye length, armhole circumference, depth of armhole, chest circumference, bust circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist dart) among 20 items of body format pattern, there were differences of size by the kinds of fabric in 5 items(height of a sleeve, circumference of a sleeve, width of a sleeve, length of a sleeve, width of bottom of a sleeve) among 5 items of sleeves pattern.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2009

With an exponential increase in electronic commerce (e-commerce), marketers are attempting to gain a competitive advantage by emphasizing service quality and post interaction service aspects, which leads to customer satisfaction or behavioral consequence. Particularly for apparel, service quality is one of the key determinants in encouraging customer e-loyalty, and hence the success of apparel retailing in the context of electronic commerce. Therefore, this study explores e-service quality (E-SERVQUAL) factors and their unique effects on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping based on Parasuraman et al' s (2005) framework. Specific objectives of this study are to identify underlying dimension of E-SERVQUAL, and analyze a structural model for examining the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for online apparel shopping. For the theoretical framework of service quality in the context of online shopping, literatures on traditional and electronic service quality factors were comparatively reviewed, and two aspects of core and recovery services were identified. This study hypothesized that E-SERVQUAL has an effect on e-loyalty; customer satisfaction has a positive effect on e-service loyalty for apparel online shopping; and customer satisfaction mediates in the effect of E-SERVQUAL on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literatures. A total of 252 usable questionnaires were obtained from online consumers who had purchase experience with online shopping for apparel products and reside in standard metropolitan areas, in the United States. Factor analysis (e.g., exploratory, confirmatory) was conducted to assess the validity and reliability and the structural equation model including measurement and structural models was estimated via LISREL 8.8 program. Findings showed that the E-SERVQUAL of shopping websites for apparel consisted of five factors: Compensation, Fulfillment, Efficiency, System Availability, and Responsiveness. This supports Parasuraman (2005)'s E-S-QUAL encompassing two aspects of core service (e.g., fulfillment, efficiency, system availability) and recovery related service (e.g., compensation, responsiveness) in the context of apparel shopping online. In the structural equation model, there are five exogenous latent variables for e-SERVQUAL factors; and two endogenous latent variables (e.g., customer satisfaction, e-loyalty). For the measurement model, the factor loadings for each respective construct were statistically significant and were greater than .60 and internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .85 to .88. In the estimated structural model of the e-SERVEQUAL factors, the system availability was found to have direct and positive effect on e-loyalty, whereas efficiency had a negative effect on e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. However, fulfillment was not a significant predictor for explaining consequences of E-SERVQUAL for apparel online shopping. This finding implies that perceived service quality of system available was likely to increase customer satisfaction for apparel online shopping. However, it was not supported that e-loyalty was determined by service quality, because service quality has an indirect effect on e-loyalty (i.e., repurchase intention) by mediating effect of value or satisfaction in the context of online shopping for apparel. In addition, both compensation and responsiveness were found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, which influenced e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. Thus, there was significant indirect effect of compensation and responsiveness on e-loyalty. This suggests that the recovery-specific service factors play an important role in maximizing customer satisfaction levels and then maintaining customer loyalty to the online shopping site for apparel. The findings have both managerial and research implications. Fashion marketers can establish long-term relationship with their customers based on continuously measuring customer perceptions for recovery-related service quality, such as quick responses to problem and returns, and compensation for customers' problem after their purchases. In order to maintain e-loyalty, recovery services play an important role in the first choice websites for consumers to purchase clothing. Given that online consumers may shop anywhere, a marketing strategy for improving competitive advantages is to provide better service quality, maximize satisfaction, and turn to creating customers' e-loyalty for apparel online shopping. From a researcher's perspective, there are some limitations of this research that should be considered when interpreting its findings. For future research, findings provide a basis for the further study of this important topic along both theoretical and empirical dimensions. Based on the findings, more comprehensive models for predicting E-SERVQUAL's consequences can be developed and tested. For global fashion marketing, this study can expand to a cross-cultural approach into e-service quality for apparel by including multinational samples.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2010

During the past 10 years, sales of luxury goods increased significantly to more than US$ 130 billion in 2007. In this industry, more than half of the revenue comes from Asia where the average income has risen significantly, and the demand for luxury products is forecast to grow rapidly. Purchasing luxury brands appears to be an intriguing social phenomenon that is profitable for companies in this region. As a newly developed country, Korea is one of the most attractive luxury markets in Asia. Currently, a total of 120 luxury fashion brands have entered the Korean market, primarily in luxury districts in Seoul where the competition is fierce. The purposes of this study are to: (1) identify antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands, (2) examine the effect of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer equity, (3) determine the impact of attitudes toward luxury brands on customer lifetime value, and (4) investigate the influence of customer equity on customer life time value. Previous studies have examined materialism, social need, experiential need, need for uniqueness, conformity, and fashion involvement as antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands. Richins and Dowson (1992) suggested that that materialism influences consumption behavior relative to quantity of goods purchased. Nueno and Quelch (1998) reported that the ownership of luxury brands conveys information related to the owner's social status, communicates an image of success and prestige, and is a determinant of purchase behavior. Experiential need is recognized as an important aspect of consumption, especially for new products developed to meet consumer demand. Since luxury goods, by definition are relatively scarce, ownership of these types of products may fulfill consumers' need for uniqueness. In this study, value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity are examined as drivers of customer equity. The sample (n = 114) was undergraduate and graduate students at two private women's universities in Seoul, Korea. Data collection was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire survey in March, 2009. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and regression analysis using SPSS 15.0 software. Data analysis resulted in a number of conclusions. First, experiential need and fashion involvement positively influence participants' attitude toward luxury brands. Second, attitude toward luxury brands positively influences brand equity, followed by value equity and relationship equity. However, there is no significant relationship between attitude toward luxury brand and customer lifetime value. Finally, relationship equity positively influences customer lifetime value. In conclusion, young consumers are an important potential consumer group that tries different brands to discover the ones most suitable for them. Luxury marketers that use effective marketing strategies to attract and engender loyalty among this potentially lucrative consumer group may increase customer equity and lifetime value.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2020

On-arrival duty free will prevent Korean outbound passengers from keeping the duty free items they purchased at the departure during their travel. Most Korean tourists have requested the airport authority to install on-arrival duty free since the grand-opening of Incheon int'l airport. Considering the fierce hub airport competition in the North East Asian region, the Korean government's decision to install on-arrival duty free is regarded as a well-timed intervention. The purpose of the research was to analyze sales correlation based on a comparison of sales of both departure and on-arrival duty free and to propose an administrative implication. Compared to business conglomerates running departure duty free, on-arrival duty free operators, who are small or medium companies, have weakness in product composition, marketing, and merchandising capabilities. According to the analysis, outbound passengers, who purchased fashion accessories and leather products at the departure duty free, tended to purchase cosmetics/perfume or liquor on the arrival duty free. Such complementary purchasing behavior of passengers showed there is barely a negative correlation between departure and on-arrival duty free.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.87-104
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to suggest a pedagogic direction of home economics education that can form body image which organize self-concept of adolescents positively. To achieve this purpose, the study suggested a body image formation model of adolescents that can be applied to home economics education, and based on this formation model, analyzed contents on body image of current 12 textbooks of home economics education. The main results of this study are summarized as follows: First, to analyze textbook through body image formation model of adolescents, educational contents about body image were categorized into 4 constructs with 8 sub-categories. Second, we found the current textbooks about the child and family life field, food and dietary life field, and clothing life, are handling topics regarding body image formation model of adolescents, such as concepts and components of body image and antecedents and outcomes of body image. We conclude that although the current textbooks handles contents on body image of adolescents, those contents are sporadically presented across the three fields without an integrated perspective. Home Economics, as an entity of educating adolescents' self-esteem through daily life activities, needs to have a topic-oriented approach in developing a curriculum.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.147-157
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• 2017

Recently, ICT Retail Convergence(IRC) has been rapidly increasing to improve consumer satisfaction and consumer experience. In this paper, we aim to diagnose IRC from consumers' point of view by reviewing the present status and value of IRC according to consumer purchase decision making process. Based on the previous studies in retail industry, we classified IRC into 4 types: Experience-specific tech(Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality); Information-specific tech(Artificial Intelligence and Big Data); Location-based tech(Radio Frequency Identification and Beacon); Payment-related tech(Fin-tech and Biometrics). Next, we found that there is a difference in value provided to consumers according to the type of technology, analysing the value by consumer purchase decision making process. This study can be useful to introduce IRC for improving consumer satisfaction as well as ICT and Retail. Also, it can be basic data for future technology studies with a consumer perspective.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.49-75
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to provide the justification of the subject through review and alternatives example on the internal consistency of Home Economics curriculum components focused to the clothing & textiles area based on the beliefs and values inherent in the Home Economics curriculum. For this purpose, we examined the perspective of the assumptions about the five components of the curriculum - family, society, objective, subject matter, method in education - from the revised curriculum in 2007 to in 2015, and suggests an example of subject matter based on the result. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the clothing & textiles area of the revised curriculum from in 2007 to in 2015, family, society, objective, subject matter and method in education, excluding subject matter, were taken from a critical science perspective. In order for Home Economics curriculum components to be internally consistent, assumptions about the subject matter should be transformed to deal with the clothing & textiles as a family work. And needed to complement assumptions about family, objective and method in education. Second, based on the discussion, suggested an alternative example to the clothing & textiles area based on the internal consistency of Home Economics curriculum components.

• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the thermal protective function of firefighter clothes and gloves through real scale fire simulations. Methods: Firstly, the fire simulation by real scale flame was performed for firefighter clothes. A manikin equipped with firefighter clothes was directly exposed to flames which energy average is 84 Kw/m². for 22 seconds. Heat flux gauges attached on the body measured surface temperature elevation. Secondly, we also performed the other fire simulation by hot plate exposure to firefighter gloves. Firefighter gloves with heat flux gauges exposed hot plate which temperature is 300℃ in both dry and moist conditions. Primary outcome was surface temperature change of manikin body (first simulation) and hand (second simulation) over times. Results: In the first flame simulation, the surface temperature of face and shoulders elevated more rapidly comparing with the other body surface area when initial period of flame shutter open. After 18sec of shutter open, the surface temperature of upper trunk elevated rapildy. After shutter closure, high surface temperature kept continuously on right side of face and left shoulder. In the second hot plate simulation, fingers and palms showed higher surface temperature than the other areas of hands in the both dry and wet conditions. Conclusion: This study suggests that the real scale flame enables firefighter clothes to lose their heat protective function suddenly after 18 seconds. Additionally, the protective function of firefighter gloves were relatively weaker in the palmar side of fingers than the other parts of hand. There should be additional study for evaluate thermal protection performance of firefighter clothes. And, further effort for reinforce palmar side of fingers of firefighter gloves should be done.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2010

This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.